Fantasy Baseball: Injuries create opportunities for others

READ MORE

The season-long plague of injuries spread from the pitching side where Cliff Lee hit the DL with elbow soreness to the hitting side where Prince Fielder was lost for the season to neck surgery.

Then Nolan Arenado became the latest to get hurt on a head-first slide, fracturing a finger sliding into second base on Friday. The Rockies third baseman was having a breakout season that he’ll have to wait about a month before trying to continue.

Fantasy owners’ mettle is tested at times like these, as your depth and ability to plug holes becomes extremely important.

There are some players who will be benefitting from these injuries that you should give a look – Mitch Moreland, who becomes the everyday first baseman in Texas with Fielder out, and Josh Rutledge, who will likely soak up a majority of the at-bats opened up in Colorado.

Moreland hasn’t done much since a big start to last season, but maybe this opportunity to play every day and hit in the middle of the Rangers lineup will make him someone that can help fill the void left by Fielder’s injury.

Another possible Fielder replacement is Garrett Jones, who is 16-for-36 (.444) with three homers and 10 RBIs in his past 10 games.

Rutledge is interesting because of his power-speed mix and getting to play half his games in Coors Field. First the Rockies will have to decide to move D.J. LeMahieu over to third base to open second base for Rutledge, because Charlie Culberson has been the initial fill-in at third base. But Rutledge was recalled from Triple-A, where he was hitting .333 with a homer and three steals in 15 games, on Saturday and will at least get his fair share of playing time.

Rutledge was dynamite in his Rockies debut in 2012 with eight homers and seven steals in 73 games before slumping last year, but in 630 career plate appearances he has 16 homers and 19 homers for Colorado.

Advertisement

Looking ahead at the coming week, we have a stuffed schedule with 20 teams that will be playing seven games. This gives weekly owners plenty of pitchers who will have two-start weeks to take advantage of.

The ace of the week is Yu Darvish, who gets away from his hitter-friendly home ballpark in Texas to face the Twins and Nationals on the road.

The sleeper of the week is Tyler Skaggs, the Angels’ talented lefty who gets two starts in pitcher-friendly ballparks in Seattle and Oakland.

The breakout player of the week is Domonic Brown, the Phillies outfielder who has been showing signs of life after a slow start and has a very favorable schedule. The fly in the ointment is that Brown left Saturday’s game with back spasms, but let’s assume he gets back in the lineup by Monday. The Phillies face five right-handers, the best of whom has a career 5.09 ERA (Jordan Lyles), so the left-handed Brown should feast.

Stud and dud of the week

Michael Brantley: The Indians outfielder is having a breakout season, highlighted by a monster performance in the past week – 13-for-31 (.419) with two homers, eight runs, eight RBIs and three steals. There are still some doubters out there, so you may be able to pry him away from an owner not believing Brantley can keep this up.

Justin Masterson: This Indian is going in the opposite direction, getting hammered in both his starts this past week to the tune of 15 hits and 12 runs in 10 innings (10.80 ERA) with eight walks. Masterson runs hot and cold, so you should stash him on your bench to whether this storm.

For updated in-season position rankings to help gauge trades and waiver-wire pickups, go to www.rotoace.com.